A few days ago I mentioned the immortal story, “Uncle Fred Flits By,” by P.G. Wodehouse. Our friend David Llewellyn Dodds, in the comments, brought up the 4 Star English television production starring David Niven. I said I’d posted it here once — but was too lazy to check to see if that post was still up. David took the trouble to check and found that the post was indeed here, but the link to the video was dead (as is so often the case with classic material on YouTube). He said, however, that another version has now been posted.

So there it is, above. It has been, I am sad to say, colorized — though if cinematic graffiti artists must paint over things, I suppose it’s better that they deface comedies than dramas.

The production is successful, all in all, though I have quibbles. It would be hard to imagine a better choice for Uncle Fred than David Niven. The guy they cast as Pongo, though, is wrong to a high degree. Pongo is a young man of the Bertie Wooster type, good-looking, well-dressed, a clubman handicapped only by tight finances.

A few small changes to the story, whose purposes elude me, have been made. Still, it’s pretty good, and better than most anything you’ll see on Netflix these days.